As it emerged from “stealth mode” the company announced the launch of its flagship, the Virtual Imaging for Pathology Education and Research (VIPER) technology, which combines AI with advanced pathology workflows, while also facilitating peer-to-peer and pathologist-to-patient collaboration. The company hopes that with the financing it can further deploy its VIPER technology.

In a press release, Deep Lens said: “The ultimate aim is to provide users with fast and accurate information, along with expert consultation, for better patient care and advanced clinical research.”

For more than 10 years, Deep Lens said, VIPER was used and refined by pathologists at more than 65 major institutions in eight countries.

Over this period, Deep Lens generated significant feedback, which the company used to enhance its platform. The company said it had also established a world-class imaging lab to enable pathology groups to “go digital” by sending slides to Deep Lens, then receive digital versions of those slides within 48 hours along with free access to VIPER.

The startup has since released a beta version of VIPER to research hospitals and academic medical centers.

Deep Lens co-founder Dave Billiter said the VIPER technology was meant to empower and enable “the pathology community, allowing them to focus on the nuanced cancer diagnoses and case-specific details that require many years of specialized medical training. It’s incredibly exciting to now leverage the evolution in machine vision technology, as we launch VIPER globally, free of charge to benefit all pathologists and, in turn, their patients.”

Billiter invented the digital imaging technology at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, where he served as a director of the Biopathology Center Informatics Team and the Informatics Core of the Research Institute.